Declogging The Courts of Tenancy Matters –Sublime Procedure
By Othniel A. Ikpibako, Esq
It is no news that whenever a landlord seeks to evict a tenant from his or her premises, the tenant more often than not is impudent and sometimes boasting he or she would stay in the premises for 20 years and fight to the Supreme Court and without paying rent. There are numerous examples of such, anyway. This attitude of tenants does not only cause owners of property untold agony but also unnecessary clogging of the courts.
Some of the objectives of law in a society is to ensure justice and predictability. Then, what is justice if a tenant has the legal opportunity to frustrate and hold to ransom a rightful owner of a property for unconscionable length of time. A landlord should only be required to give a reasonable length of notice to a tenant and thereafter be able to repossess his or her premises, without further ado. This would also mean legally abolishing any agreement between the landlord and the tenant providing for a shorter length of notice than the statutory period.
The sublime procedure this paper presents in declogging the court of tenancy matters is as follows:
Tenancy matters will be the exclusive jurisdiction of the Magistrate Court.
All notices to evict a tenant must be filed at, and served on a tenant by, the court in the Magisterial District where the premises is situate. The landlord must file along with the notice to quit a duly stamped tenancy agreement clearly showing the landlord and the tenant (the initial agreement suffices).
The tenancy law will make it “compulsory” for a landlord to give length of notice to a tenant (6 months notice for yearly tenancy, 1 month notice for monthly tenancy and 1 week notice for weekly tenancy) and importantly the law will prohibit any agreement to the contrary for a shorter notice to the tenant.
After the compulsory statutory notice to the tenant and the tenant still refuses or fails to give up possession of the premises, the landlord would then issue one month notice of owner’s intention to recover possession instead of the hitherto 7 days period.
Within the subsistence of, and not subsequent to, the one month notice of owner’s intention to recover possession, the tenant has an opportunity to file at the registry of the court which issued the notice, a plea of extension of stay in the premises not exceeding 3 months and giving reasons by affidavit for the extension.
If after the expiration of the one month notice of owner’s intention to recover possession and the plea of extension of stay, if requested for, the registry of the court which issued the statutory notices can then issue a writ of possession to the landlord for the Sheriff of the court to execute same.
The compulsory statutory notice to quit cannot be issued to a tenant to forfeit any period of his or her subsisting tenancy, for example, if it is yearly tenancy which is to expire 31 December 2025, the 6 months notice cannot be validly issued on 31 May 2025 to run till 30 November 2025, since same would be a breach of the subsisting tenancy agreement but the tenant can waive the irregularity in writing signed by him or her; also, if the compulsory statutory notice extends beyond the expiration of the tenancy, the tenant is to pay for the proportional arrears of rent.
Where a tenant has not renewed his or her tenancy after a period of time (3 months for yearly tenancy, 1 month for monthly tenancy and one week for weekly tenancy), whether by refusal of the landlord or tenant’s inability or for any other reason, the tenant is no longer entitled to the compulsory statutory notice to quit, but entitled to one month notice of owner’s intention to recover possession and the plea of extension of stay to maximum of 3 months.
Both the one month notice of owner’s intention to recover possession and the plea of extension of time to maximum of 3 months apply to all nature of tenancy of any length.
For a fixed tenancy which must be for a period of minimum of 3 years, no statutory notice to quit is required but the one month notice of owner’s intention to recover possession and the plea of extension of stay to maximum of 3 months are applicable.
A tenancy matter cannot be instituted in the court without the tenant seeking leave of the court, only on the ground of irregular length of notices and/or non service of notices, which suit must be instituted within the period of one month notice to the tenant of owner’s intention to recover possession, and after the tenant has deposited in the court registry an amount equal to the last full rent for the premises and the determination of the court which must not exceed 6 months, shall be only to add to the tenant any length of time consequent upon the irregularity complained of, which decision is not subject to appeal. Provided that a tenant who has filed a plea for extension of stay cannot resort to the foregoing provisions of instituting a suit.
From the foregoing sublime procedure in declogging the court of tenancy matters, there are tripartite benefits. Firstly, for the state, it will boost its revenue generation as tenancy agreements will be compulsorily stamped by landlords to be able to resort to eviction of a tenant; also, the state court will also be decongested of tenancy matters which, hitherto, are added strain to the courts. Secondly, the landlord is able to recover his or her premises, within the maximum of 4 four months after expiration of tenancy or in extreme exceptional cases within 7 months, without the untold agony hitherto. Thirdly, the tenant of yearly tenancy, for example, has 10 months window of notice (including compulsory 6 months during subsistence of his or tenancy) to look for alternative accommodation.
Othniel A. Ikpibako is a Lagos based lawyer.eruditeothniel@yahoo.co.uk
